"It's the plan. Because that's what we do. Everybody is on board" is what Stevie Nicks said earlier this week when asked on US TV show This Morning (no Philip Schofield to be seen on this one) if Fleetwood Mac would be reuniting for a tour in 2013.
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So the rumour mill splutters into life once again – when The Mac last toured in 2009, they were heavily rumoured to be headlining Glastonbury that year, until Emily Eavis put the kibosh on it all, revealing that they hadn’t been asked.

Stevie has not been a stranger to Glastonbury rumours herself, her solo show was hotly tipped to take one of the guest slots last year as she came to play Hard Rock Calling 2011 over the same weekend.

But, with the festival returning next year, and golden oldies Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones already tipped as headliners, what price a big Pyramid Stage singalong to ‘Go Your Own Way’ and the like?

Talking of The Stones, it looks like they’re finally preparing to return to live duties, having given the oft-rumoured Olympics show a miss:

Speaking to ITN, singer Mick Jagger said: "I didn't think, to be honest, we were quite stage ready [for the Olympics]. We haven't played in a long time, and it's a very big gig and it's very risk-taking. I didn't think the band themselves felt they were really ready to do it at this point.

We hope we're going to do some gigs this year. We haven't actually finalised them, but we hope we're going to do some gigs. We've done rehearsing, hanging out together and all that discussing so you know, we've been seeing each other quite a lot."

Guitarist Keith Richards also confirmed to the BBC that the wheels were in motion: “There's things in the works - I think it's definitely happening. But when? I can't say yet. We're playing around with the idea and had a couple of rehearsals - we've got together and it feels so good.”

So they’ll be a well-oiled machine by, say, next June? Perhaps 2013 will see the band make it to Worthy Farm, with some speculating that it could be the setting for their final-ever show.

Other names in the headliner frame at this stage include The Stone Roses, Radiohead, Adele, The Killers, Mumford & Sons, Florence & The Machine, Arctic Monkeys, Jay-Z & Kanye West and even Metallica, but no-one is likely to be confirmed for a long time yet. Michael Eavis recently said that all three headliners had already been booked for next year's festival, but declined to name names.

Glastonbury 2013 tickets will go on sale at 9am on Sunday 7 October. As with the last few years, anyone wishing to buy a ticket for the festival will have to register in advance.

Registration is open now and free of charge, and can be done by heading to www.glastonburyregistration.co.uk and filling in your details and uploading a photo of yourself, which will be printed on the ticket. Every would-be ticketholder will need to register individually.

If you have registered to buy tickets to the Festival before, you may well still be registered, as you now only need to do it once, and you can also now edit the details of your existing registration (for example if you need to change your address) on the site.

Iconic British-American rock outfit Fleetwood Mac have announced a fresh run of US tour dates - which has pretty much ruled them out of performing at the return of Glastonbury this year.

The band, who are celebrating the 35th anniversary of their record ‘Rumours’ - which many fans claim to be their best album - are set to kick off their world tour in Columbus this April, and will tour throughout April, May, June, and into July.

Adding dates to their tour, the band have now announced a number of new shows, including gigs in Spokane, Washington on Saturday June 29th and Portland, Oregon on Sunday June 30th. This means that the band would only have a chance to perform at Glastonbury on the Friday, and would have to travel straight back to the US the next morning - suggesting that a Glastonbury appearance for Fleetwood Mac is almost certainly out of the question.

British fans of the band are currently awaiting the announcement of the band’s UK tour dates, which are expected to be announced in the near future. We expect there will some large-scale appearances from the band - and they could even be lined-up as one of the Hyde Park or Olympic Park event headliners. We’ll have to hold tight for some official announcements.

Fleetwood Mac: 'We'd like to play Glastonbury 2014'
Band turn down 2013 date

Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac has spoken of the moment the band turned down the chance to play Glastonbury Festival 2013.
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Talking to BBC Radio 2's Jo Whiley, the 65-year-old drummer and founding member of Fleetwood Mac, said: "We were asked to do Glastonbury. In fact my sister Sally, my eldest sister - one of her best friends lives right on the property line of the family that runs [the festival], it's their land, and they asked my sister to get hold of me, and I got hold of them. They said, 'We want you to headline the festival this year.' We're not doing it.

"It was great to be asked, then we found out if we do that we won't get to play at all of the other places, because people migrate to one place.

"And therefore our visitation to other countries was going to be affected by what was this fantastic, one off show.

"So we decided it wasn't, this year, a good idea to do that because we wanna feel like we've gone to a lot of places. That's why we didn't, but we were greatly honoured to be asked to headline that show, and I hope that we do.

"Next year we have said that we'd really like to do it if they still want us. They might want someone else.. 'Nah, you snooze you lose!'"

Fleetwood also said he started the rumours himself: "That was a true rumour that I started. My sister phoned me up and said, 'Will you phone these people up?' which were the real people. But the cut off point [to say yes] was a few months back."

Glastonbury Festival boss Michael Eavis has revealed that he has more or less signed the headliners for 2014, teasing that neither act has played the historical music gathering in the past.

In an interview with NME, Eavis explained, "Next year's headliners are more or less in place. They're three bands who haven't played Glastonbury, and that's important." Though the article sent the internet into frenzy with speculation over Eavis's dream headliners Prince and Madonna, the emphasis on the word 'band' appears to suggest the acts will be more conventional four or five-pieces, perhaps in the rock genre.

Of course, both acts travel with accomplished bands - Prince particularly - though Eavis's comments leaves those possibilities in doubt - for this writer at least.

Of course, the announcement also kills off any hopes that David Bowie will make his live comeback, having performed at the festival twice before.

"There aren't many bands left who haven't played the festival, and before we run out I'd like to persuade the ones on my wish list to come down," Eavis continued in the interview, "I think I've managed that with these three."

Eavis is known for his shrewd PR exercises, particularly in the lead up to ticket releases, though let's take a minute to mull over the possibilities.

Earlier this year, the festival-guru site eFestivals posted a report suggesting Elbow, Fleetwood Mac and Depeche Mode were the three bands that Eavis had targeted for Glastonbury 2014. It read:

"Whether these two acts will headline Glastonbury 2014 we cannot tell you with any certainty, because our understanding is that nothing has been contracted as yet and things often change in the months that pass between a loose verbal agreement and signed contracts (normally in the Autumn) . but we're about as certain as we ever get that Elbow, Fleetwood Mac, and Depeche Mode are the three bands Michael Eavis was referring to many months ago when he said he had the 2014 headliners sorted."

Having played Glastonbury a couple of times, Elbow appear to be out of the running, though Fleetwood Mac and the returning Depeche Mode now seem increasingly likely to be named headliners for 2014. The latter turned down a slot at the festival in 2009 with keyboardist Andrew Fletcher telling The Daily Star: "Glasto would be fun but the line-up didn't quite work for us.Getting the right bill is important." Eavis eventually plumped for Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Blur in what remains one of the defining years in the festival's history.

Fleetwood Mac were widely speculated to headline Glastonbury in 2013, though ruled themselves out by booking at U.S. tour that clashed with the Saturday and Sunday of the festival. The legendary reunited rockers are known to be on Michael Eavis's radar and singer Stevie Nicks publically stated her desire to play Glastonbury having watching Beyonce's triumphant headlining slot from her London hotel room in 2011.

Another slightly left field choice would be Pearl Jam. The U.S. rockers have played many a festival, though whether they fit with the Glastonbury aesthetic remains to be seen. Still, with their new album Lightning Bolt due on October 15 and the possibility of a lengthy world tour to follow, Eddie Vedder and company could finish things off nicely in a Somerset farm next June.

I honestly don't think any of them realise the potential of playing Glastonbury. I also don't get the notion that perhaps if they played Glastonbury this year they couldn't of done a UK tour around it.